Barnardo's Early Intervention Family Support Service is recruiting for a Project Worker 2 post in the Northern Health & Social Care Trust area. The service is delivered in partnership with the SPPG.
This is an exciting opportunity to join a dedicated team of family support practitioners who offer direct home visiting support to families and children (aged 8-13 years). The service is flexible and responsive to the needs of children and families experiencing a range of difficulties. We use a strengths-based approach to support families and children to achieve better outcomes. Needs may relate to health, social or educational issues and the challenges experienced by families referred to the service are diverse:-
1. Behaviour
2. School
3. Emotional wellbeing
4. Illness/Bereavement
Please ensure that you outline on your application how you meet the following Essential criteria:
5. Degree or Diploma in Social Work or a relevant 3rd level qualification, for example psychology degree or professional qualification in teaching or community youth work.
6. Direct experience of working with children and families
7. Experience of delivering interventions to parents
8. Hold a full UK driving licence, business insurance and access to a car for work purposes (this criteria will be waived for candidates with a disability who can demonstrate alternative means of meeting the mobility requirements of the post).
Salary: £28,124 – £35,127 FTE (This is not an incremental scale)
Hours: 37 hrs per week
Office base: Northern Locality team,Ballymena
Closing Date: Midnight 1 February 2026
Interview Dates: Week beginning 9 February 2026
A waiting list of reserve candidates will be held in the event that similar vacancies arise during the next 12 months.
The successful applicant will be required to undertake an Enhanced Access NI with Child Barred List check.
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.
Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's . We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.
Benefits
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
9. Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
10. Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
11. The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
12. A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
13. Service related sick pay from day 1
14. Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
15. Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
16. Cycle2work scheme
17. Interest free season ticket loans
18. Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
19. 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
20. Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
21. Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
22. Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's